Monday, February 1, 2010

J.D. Salinger Passes Away 1/26/10

This post is dedicated to J.D. Salinger, the author of Catcher in the Rye who passed away at age 91 this past Wednesday.

I remember that I was first introduced to the book in 9th grade English class. Our teacher, Mrs. Wiggin (who was also the school newspaper faculty lead), gave us a choice between reading Pride and Prejudice and the Catcher in the Rye. Of a class of about twenty-five students, only six people chose P&P, me being one of them. The rest of the class read Catcher. Why? Because when you're in 9th grade with eight classes, tons of homework to do, and a new set of boys and girls to notice for the first time, you choose the book with less pages. I, however, was not thinking along the same lines of my classmates. I chose P&P because Mrs. Wiggin said it involved a love story. A month later everyone in the class discussed their two books, and I heard how much everyone liked Catcher. So later, on my own, I read the book too.

Tell everyone when/how you first read Catcher in the Rye.

There's also a blog that I'd like to link to: http://bookpage.wordpress.comThey're also running this kind of post about J.D. Salinger. They also review books and post recommendations.